THE BIKDS USED IN HAWKING 19 



abouts, and kept in captivity, it was quite correct to continue 

 the name soar until her first moult was over. Passage-hawks 

 and lantiners were those only which had been caught in late 

 autumn or late winter; and these words could never be used 

 for such as had been caught before. As for the terms " gentle " 

 and " slight," they seem most properly to belong to peregrines 

 which had been caught after they left the nest, but before they 

 began to migrate. 



In spring or early summer the young peregrine naturally be- 

 gins to moult ; and as soon as this tedious operation is concluded 

 she becomes, if wild, a " haggard," and if tame, an " intermewed " 

 hawk. In any case she is described as " blue," and not " red." 

 There is some doubt as to the meaning of the term haggard, 

 many authorities, including the lexicographers, deriving it from 

 the Saxon hag^ meaning hedge. A more rational explanation 

 seems to be that which traces it to the Hebrew word agar 

 or hagar, meaning wild, as it is used in the Old Testament. 

 Wildness, indeed, is always regarded by Shakespeare and other 

 writers as the characteristic of the adult wild hawk, and not 

 any liking for hedges, to which no peregrine is very partial. 



The language, or jargon, of falconry appropriated to the 

 falcon, and, by analogy, to other hawks, especially of the long- 

 winged species, special terms for various parts of her body and 

 various movements and conditions ; much in the same way as 

 several of the Oriental languages describe the actions of royalty 

 by special names. Thus her wings are sails : the long feathers 

 of them are flight feathers ; and of these the outer are prin- 

 cipals ; and next to them are the flags. Her tail is her train ; 

 and the two central feathers of it are deck feathers. Her lower 

 leg is an arm, and her foot a hand, with petty singles instead of 

 toes, and talons instead of vulgar claws. Her nostrils are 

 nares ; her breast feathers are mails ; her lower intestine is her 

 pannel ; and her crop her gorge. 



A host of the commonest actions are dignified by more or less 

 quaint appellations. When a hawk sleeps she "jowks" ; when 

 she sips water she " bowses." When she seizes her quarry in 

 the air she "binds" to it; and when her companion in the 

 flight comes up and also takes hold, she or he is said to "join." 

 When she strips the feathers of the " pelt," or dead body, of the 

 quarry, she " deplumes " ; and as she passes the food from her 

 crop downwards she " puts over." To " endue " is to digest ; 

 to " fcak " is to wipe her beak after eating ; to " rouse " is to 

 shake herself; to "mantle" is to stretch out the leg in a side- 

 ways and backward direction, and afterwards stretch the wing 



